Entry Three: Interview with Bilingual Teacher
 |
For entry three, I have decided to interview a good friend of mine: Hazel Underwood. Ms. Underwood is a second-year teacher at Katy ISD and recently wrapped up her first year teaching a first-grade bilingual class. Ms.Underwood graduated from the University of Texas, with a degree in teaching and learning. Unlike most of her class, Hazel decided to take the bilingual PPR after her first year of teaching and since then has loved working with bilingual students.
Like most of her students, Ms.Underwood is multilingual. In her interview, she mentions that being multilingual has greatly influenced her in the way she teaches and the way she understands the students. She explains that this type of understanding is what drove her to be a bilingual teacher. She enjoys teaching a second language and loves when her students finally make connections and understand a concept in their second language. This type of passion and interest in sparking L2 learning is what then pushes motivation onto her students to want to learn English. "Motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it" (Ortega, 2013, p.168). This quote comes directly from Ortega's Understanding second language acquisition (2013) and applies perfectly to Ms.Underwood's teaching methods. Throughout her interview, I also noticed some other aspects that she shared with Ortega's points on motivation. For example, when questioned about her familiarity with motivation, she stated that she knew that motivation was important in the classroom in order for her students to be able to claim their second language for themselves. In Understanding second language acquisition Ortega claims exactly that.
"[Motivation is] the desire to learn, which can be generally understood as how much personal
investment in succeeding in the language people claim for themselves" (Ortega, 2013, p.170).
Although Ms.Underwood has only just now started teaching bilingual students, I found her to be very knowledgeable about second language acquisition on and off camera. It is interesting to have heard her course equivalent to this one, and how she managed to become a bilingual teacher pretty much all by herself. So much so, that I am now quite interested in taking the same career path.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello, Alexander! I loved Ms. Underwood’s interview! What I found to be really interesting was when Ms. Underwood mentioned that in her classes, she sees her English speaking students and her ESL students teaching each other little things and benefitting from each other. In Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course there is a section that states that “speaking like others is intended to have the benefit of gaining the approval of others” (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.269). Aside from basic friendship making and the social aspects of being in school, this could explain why Ms. Underwood’s students are so enthusiastic to share their languages with each other.
ReplyDeleteSources: Gass, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. Routledge.
Hey, Dahlia! Yes, you make a great point in explaining why Ms.Underwood’s students are so eager to share their first language. As I was reading the portion of the textbook you cited, I found that another aspect of using language in a social context has to do with one’s self identity. Gass and Selinker mention that “it [language] also identifies one as a member of the same social group, class, or ethnic background” (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.269). This helped me make another connection from Ms.Underwood’s interview. In her interview she mentions that she enjoys making language learning personal for the students, by bringing culture into the classroom. After seeing this information in the textbook, it makes me admire Ms.Underwood’s work with her students even more. Thank you so much for your comment!
DeleteReferences:
Gass, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. Routledge.
Alexander, I am inspired by your passion for bilingual teaching! It is obvious from your interview that you enjoyed discussing some of Ortega's points of motivation and the consequences of a lack of desire or challenge in our students (2011). Would you say that this lack can cause damage to our students' personal lives as well as their educational? Or is motivation strictly tied to a student's academics?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel that, without motivation, humans fail to function properly. There are far too many studies that discuss this topic in depth, however, Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" is an excellent example of how motivation and purpose dictate a person's success.
That being said, what would you do - now that you are thinking seriously about becoming a bilingual teacher - to encourage a challenging and rewarding atmosphere for your students?
Hi there, Ila! Thank you so much for your support and comments! I do truly believe that motivation is key in second language learning. That being said, I also believe that the motivation has to come from the teacher way more than the learner. As Ortega mentions in his socio-educational model, “Motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it” (Ortega, 2013, p.168). With this comes great responsibility. It means that we as teachers and educators HAVE to have the desire and drive to get our students to learn and acquire their second language. I also completely agree with your statement that without motivation, humans fail to function properly. This is especially true in the classroom. That being said, in order to encourage my own future students I plan to implement the three dimensions of Ortega’s socio-educational model, and also just be aware of how much of an impact I am having on another human having to learn a language that will affect their life entirely.
DeleteReferences
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Alexander, I may not personally agree with your thoughts on how motivation should come more strongly from the teacher than the students, however, I enjoyed hearing your ideas on the subject regardless. I am especially interested in your use of Ortega's points on desire and motivation initiating a love of learning second-languages (2011). I agree that being aware of our influence on our students is key to helping them achieve success, both academically and socially.
DeleteHello Alexander. I absolutely agree with the point your friend made about motivation in the classroom. As mentioned by Ortega, enjoyment, investment, and effort are the three dimensions of motivation that ultimately affect a students achievement in learning their second language (Ortega 2013, pg. 169). I also think how your friend approached motivating her students to learn a second language is impeccable. Not many people are able to understand how their own attitude towards teaching a subject affects how the students will respond to learning it. If we as educators are not interested and motivated to teach, our students will respond in a negative manner as well.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Routledge, 2015.
Hi Aleena! I totally agree with your comment. I believe out of the three dimensions of Ortega’s socio-educational model, his third point has to be the most important. “Desire to learn, which can be generally understood as how much personal investment in succeeding in the language people claim for themselves” (Ortega, 2013, p.170). I believe that as educators we have to have the desire to keep learning, in order to teach and be able to motivate our students. This then allows us to really push our students into learning anything, especially their second language. Thanks for your comment!
DeleteReferences
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Alexander!
ReplyDeleteI can tell that Ms. Underwood is passionate in teaching her first grade bilingual class. I like how she mentioned that having patience and motivation are important aspects since I feel that every teacher should have those characteristics. I also want to comment on how having an optimistic attitude is easily influenced in the classroom. During my classroom observations, it has caught my attention that some teachers do not create the right attitude in the classroom and I believe that is detrimental in the teaching environment. Ortega states, “attitudes towards the L2 and its speakers will contribute to increased or diminished L2 motivation” so it definitely plays a huge role when considering these factors (Ortega, p. 174).
References
Ortega, L. (2009). Other Antecedents: Orientations and Attitudes. In Understanding Second Language Acquisition (p. 174). London: Hodder Education.